


find your fathers, and your mothers, (if you remember who they are)

by Yevynaea



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: Ahsoka - E. K. Johnston, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon Timeline, Canonical Character Death, Crack Treated Seriously, Dark Leia Organa, Fake Character Death, Family, Family Feels, Family Issues, Family Reunions, Fix-It of Sorts, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force-Sensitive Leia Organa, Gen, Inspired by The Parent Trap (1998), Irony, Kidnapping, Lightsaber Battles, Misunderstandings, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Padmé Amidala Lives, Past Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker, Sibling Bonding, Storms, Tatooine (Star Wars), Tatooine Slave Culture, The Force, Trans Luke Skywalker
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-09-14 14:22:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16914519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yevynaea/pseuds/Yevynaea
Summary: “You’re very awake for such a tiny thing,” Alesk says. “How old are you?”He pauses, shifting to free one of his hands, gently grabbing the baby’s hand so as to read the identification tag around her tiny wrist. It’s got a date of birth, and a first name, no last. “Just about a week. You were born almost the same time as the Empire. How ‘bout that?”The baby yawns, wide eyes scrunching shut. “Let’s you and I make a deal,” Alesk says. “We just won't tell Vader that you had a twin. Alright? You were the only baby there. Yes you were. Just like the intel said. That sound good, little Leia?”Or: the AU where Padmé lives, Vader doesn't realize it, Luke grows up with a Rebel mom, Leia grows up Imperial, and the twins meet amidst a backdrop of interstellar conflict.Or: The Parent Trap, but Star Wars.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Me: **sees that tumblr post of parent trap screencaps with luke and leia's faces haphazardly photo-shopped over them**  
> Me: "haha funney post"  
> Me ten seconds later: "....hey what if tho.."
> 
> And now it's a full-grown AU with an outline spanning the entire OT timeline. pray for me.

Alesk Mondragon prides himself in a job well done. He's been a bounty hunter for years, and he's only had a disappointed client twice-- and one of those was the fault of Jedi interference (kriffing  _ Vos _ ) so he figures he really can't be blamed for it. His record is very nearly flawless. He is  _ not  _ about to let that be ruined by the fact that the new Empire’s spies and informants have failed to notice something that should  _ really _ have been obvious, in Alesk’s humble opinion.

(It was almost pitifully easy, to get into the med center, to find what he was looking for. It was annoying, to discover the intel had been wrong, to have to make an unexpected decision because apparently spies can't  _ count _ . But it was barely a challenge to get out with his prize.

“I'm so sorry,” he said, handing the for-all-appearances-dead child to the man who’d come running when he hit the alarm. Alesk recognized him as a Senator, though the man's name escaped him. The Senator was quiet, mourning silently until Alesk spoke up again. “Shall I take her to be prepared for funeral rites?”

“I-- Yes,” the Senator said, handing the baby back.

Alesk had to slip credits to a worker on his way out, to ensure a suitably convincing decoy would be buried or burned in place of the newborn, but then he was out, and soon he was back on his ship and in hyperspace.)

“It's fine,” he says now, not sure if the words are directed at himself or at the infant in his arms. “We just have to keep a secret. You're very good at that, aren't you?”

The baby blinks at him. “You’re very awake for such a tiny thing,” Alesk says. “How old are you?”

He pauses, shifting to free one of his hands, gently grabbing the baby’s hand so as to read the identification tag around her tiny wrist. It’s got a date of birth, and a first name, no last. “Just about a week. You were born almost the same time as the Empire. How ‘bout that?”

The baby yawns, wide eyes scrunching shut. “Let’s you and I make a deal,” Alesk says. “We just won't tell Vader that you had a twin. Alright? You were the only baby there. Yes you were. Just like the intel said. That sound good, little Leia?”

Leia only blinks again, and Alesk nods like that's an agreement. “Good.”

  
  
  


Padmé wakes-- properly-- after twelve days.

“Where are my girls?” she asks first. Her companions share a sorrowful glance, and her heart drops.

“Lukka is here,” Obi-Wan says, going to a crib in the corner of the room that she hadn't seen before. “Leia… didn't make it.”

Padmé grieves, and holds her surviving child close.

When she eventually asks, Bail informs her that she's woken up before, but not been lucid until now. Obi-Wan informs her that they've moved med-centers twice already, and were about to do so again the next night. Bail tells her she's missed her own funeral. Apparently she was further sedated, dressed in heavy garments and covered in flowers so any sign of movement could be written off as petals in the wind, and quickly hidden from public view for the latter part of the ceremonies, at which point her family wished her well and sent her off. Just as would be expected of such a service, save for a few significant details. Among the flowers and tokens and other appropriate offerings, someone or someones had slipped a cloak, dark and comfortable and inconspicuous, into the casket. Someone else placed an old tooka doll of hers, lovingly mended. Now, holding both on her lap, letting Lukka admire the doll, Padmé sends silent thanks to her family.

“And Anakin?” she asks.

“There are only rumours, yet,” Obi-Wan neatly evades answering, and for the moment, Padmé is too pained and exhausted to call him on it.

  
  
  


It's dangerous for any of them to be seen together. It's also dangerous for the baby to stay with Padmé; she's still weak, still healing, unable to fight, to run, if she had herself  _ and _ Lukka to worry about. Bail takes Threepio and Artoo, and returns to Breha, returns to Alderaan and the old-new Imperial Senate and his life. Padmé dons her dark cloak and boards a ship headed to a backwater moon in the Mid Rim. Obi-Wan takes Lukka, with promises to send word of their location to Padmé once he knows it's safe.

Paila Dalaem hops planets and moons for months, finding odd jobs to pay her passage through the Outer Rim, and regaining her strength. She sends a communication to Bail with her new name, knowing he will pass it on to Obi-Wan. And at the end of those months, she gets word. A datastick, delivered by a smuggler. It only has a set of coordinates and a single document on it, both unencrypted.

_ Paila, _

_ We have settled comfortably on Tatooine, with moisture farmers who once knew your husband. I await your arrival. _

_ Your brother,  _

_ Ben _

So she goes to Tatooine.

  
  
  


Luke grows up loved. By his aunt and uncle, who keep him fed and safe, and by his mother, who leaves often but always comes home eventually, bringing credits and stories and trinkets from across the galaxy.

He grows up  _ Lukka Ekkreth _ , a Skywalker, because it was his father's name. His mother's name is Dalaem, but as he gets older-- old enough to keep secrets-- she tells him others. Naberrie, Amidala.

She tells him stories of queens and monsters and knights with swords made of light. Luke grows up with these stories, as well as Tatooine’s stories of tricksters and grandmothers and slaves who free themselves. He grows up knowing both sets of stories are true, if sometimes in different ways.

  
  
  


Leia grows up, kept safe. By the nursemaids, who raise Force-sensitive children to be Inquisitors for their Emperor, and by Lord Vader and a few Inquisitors, who take interest in her talent, and don't see it as a threat.

She grows up without names. She earns _ Sixth Sister,  _ then  _ First Sister  _ when the previous holder of the title meets an unfortunate end, and  _ Leia _ is a close-guarded secret, a tiny medcenter bracelet she doesn't know how the nursemaids overlooked.

The older Inquisitors tell her stories of their hunts, their kills. Leia grows up knowing violence, and anger, and the Dark. She grows up knowing strength and power and how to acquire both for herself.

  
  
  


When Luke is nine, his mother tells him that he is a twin. Or,  _ was  _ a twin. She’s talked about this before, in passing, Luke realizes, but now he is old enough to understand it, old enough to remember and comprehend the story. She tells him that his sister, Leia, died just after they were born. When Luke sees tears gathering in the corners of his mother’s eyes, he nuzzles close to her in an attempt at comfort. She holds him tight.

Luke recalls the saying Aunt Beru whispers sometimes, recalls the way runaways say it as if it’s a prayer, while Beru removes their transmitter chips and stitches them whole again.  _ Dukkra ba dukkra. Freedom or death. _ Perhaps his twin sister found both.

  
  
  


When Leia is ten, the Grand Inquisitor’s lightsaber comes down inches from her hand during a training exercise, Darth Vader’s blade extending to block it at the last possible moment.

“Replacing prosthetics as she grows would be an expense I doubt you can afford,” Vader rumbles, and the Grand Inquisitor gives half a smirk as he steps back, moving on to work with the next trainee. “Get up, youngling.”

Leia does, grabbing her saber and getting back into one of the defensive stances she’s supposed to be learning.

“Bend your knees, and don’t root yourself so firmly,” Vader instructs, almost gently. “Lowering your center of gravity and staying light on your feet will make it harder for an adversary to knock you off balance, and easier for you to launch into an attack.”

“Yes, Lord Vader,” Leia follows his instructions, shifting her stance, and he nods, apparently satisfied.

  
  
  


When Luke is eleven, Old Ben Kenobi invites him for tea, and sits him down, and he shows Luke a lightsaber.

“It was your father's,” Ben says. “The weapon of a Jedi Knight.”

And Ben tells him about his father, the Jedi, more stories like the ones his mother tells him. Ben tells him of the Force, Light and Dark. Ben-- Obi-Wan-- tells him of the Clone Wars, and their ending. And he tells Luke of how Anakin Skywalker was killed. Dead by the hand of Darth Vader, at the rise of the Empire.

(“Why did you tell him that?” Padmé asks later, after Luke comes to her about it.

“Because from a certain point of view, it's true,” Obi-Wan says. “And I'm worried that if he knows the whole truth, he’ll go looking for Light he won't find.”

“What, so instead he should go looking for vengeance that doesn't exist?” Padmé asks.

“We should wait until he's older, at least.” Obi-Wan sighs. “Old enough to  _ understand _ .”)

  
  
  


When Leia is twelve, Lord Vader dismisses the other Inquisitors after giving them their orders, but he tells her to stay. Fourth Brother spares her a curious, almost wary glance, but she ignores him, and after a split-second of stillness, he hurries out after the others.

“First Sister,” Vader says, a thin thread of… amusement, maybe, reaching her through the Force before he catches it and reinforces his shields. “A moment.”

He leads her to a room where all security has been disabled. Wary, ready for whatever test he is about to throw her way, she sits in the chair he offers.

“Leia,” he begins, and her throat grows dry, hands tightening briefly on her saber hilts at the realization that he knows the name she has tried so hard to keep secret. “What do you know of your parents?”

Of course she's wondered, now and again, who her parents might have been. If they tried to fight, when she was taken. But it's never mattered, so she's never cared.

“Nothing, Lord Vader,” she replies honestly. He is silent a long time.

“Leia… I am your father,” he says at length, still and unreadable through the Force. She's stunned, for a moment.

“You?” she asks, because it's the only word that comes to her.

“Yes.” Vader lets his shields down, just a little, just enough that she can sense the truth in what he's telling her. “The Emperor would not allow me to raise you. He feared the power of attachment, feared that I would attempt to kill him, take his place, and take you as my Apprentice.”

“Would you have?” Leia asks. Vader doesn't answer for a while.

“Possibly,” he admits eventually. Leia smiles, sharp and pleased, at the prospect. Then a thought occurs to her.

“Who was my mother?” she asks.

After a tense, silent moment, he tells her. He tells her of Padmé Amidala. A queen, a senator. Dead by the hand of a Jedi named Anakin Skywalker, at the rise of the Empire.

(It’s true, from a certain point of view.)

  
  
  


When Luke is thirteen, and expresses wanting to attend the Imperial Academy like his friend Biggs intends to, his mother tells him about the Rebellion she is part of-- has  _ been _ part of. He listens closely, hears her explanations, and then asks eagerly to join her.

“Not yet,” she tells him. “It's too dangerous.”

She doesn't think she can keep him safe forever, but she has seen the burden war puts on children-- and tensions are slowly rising, the Empire becoming harsher, the Rebels growing bolder and more organized as their numbers increase. There  _ will _ be a war.

  
  
  


When Leia is fourteen, her father assigns her to assist the Grand Inquisitor on Stygeon Prime. She is eager to prove herself.

“I'll handle the Jedi,” the Grand Inquisitor tells her. “You get rid of his friends.”

She tries. The Jedi, his Padawan, and their ragtag crew manage to escape, if only just. The Grand Inquisitor is told to keep tracking them, alone, while Leia is sent after a new target.

  
  
  


The Force is anticipatory, restless with echoes of things yet to come.


	2. Chapter 2

When Luke is fourteen, he meets Ashla.

She's a Rebel, waiting for Paila Dalaem. Luke returns her code phrases with the replies he’s been taught, tells her Paila’s his mom, and invites her to wait inside the house, where Beru and Ben are making dinner.

Then Obi-Wan’s arm meets Ashla’s fist.

“I thought you were dead!” the Togruta exclaims, pulling Obi-Wan into a crushing hug.

“I thought the same of you!” he replies. He catches Luke's confusion in the Force, and turns toward him. “Luke, this is Ahsoka Tano.”

“Does Bail know you're here?” Ahsoka asks, barely sparing Luke another glance yet, too excited.

“He's known since the beginning,” Ben confirms.

“Remind me to punch him, too, then,” Ahsoka says. Luke isn't sure if she's joking. “Now, who's this again?”

“Luke Skywalker,” Luke introduces himself. Ahsoka goes still, eyes wide. It takes her a moment to collect her thoughts.

“Obi-Wan,” she says, “who did you mean by ‘ _ we _ ?’”

“Myself, Luke, and… his mother,” Obi-Wan answers, “the contact Bail sent you here to speak with.”

  
  
  


When Leia is fourteen, she hunts rumours and whispers, searching for Force-sensitive younglings. She tracks one set of rumors to Tatooine, to a child in the slave quarters of a sand-coated settlement. She tries to intimidate the gangster in charge of the place into giving the kid up, with no luck. Without being able to take the child by force, due to their transmitter chip, Leia is forced to wait for Fourth Brother to come with the credits and firepower to get what they want-- by whatever means necessary.

She’s distracted from the moment she steps foot on the barren planet, something in the back of her head, some echo in the Force, but she ignores it. Whatever is out there, whispering, it’s irrelevant to her mission.

  
  
  


Padmé does not get a punch, when she comes home. Just an over-exuberant hug.

They talk of the Rebellion, of the fifteen years past, and-- when Luke bugs Ahsoka long enough-- of Anakin Skywalker, of their adventures together during the Clone Wars.

“How much time do you have?” Padmé asks, after a while.

“Just tonight,” Ahsoka says. “Our intel puts the inquisitor’s backup nearly a week out, but I don't want to cut it too close.”

Obi-Wan has gone home, by now. Beru and Owen are asleep, and Luke is keeping himself awake through sheer force of will, sitting with his mother and Ahsoka. He wants to ask what an inquisitor is, why Ahsoka is here, now, but the air is heavy, tension and stress radiating from both women at the table. He stays quiet.

“Here’s the names you need,” Padmé gives a datastick to Ahsoka, and Ahsoka nods, slips it away.

“I'll be gone tomorrow,” she says.

  
  
  


Leia keeps close watch over the youngling and their family. It wouldn't do to let her prey escape after so much trouble. The first four nights are uneventful. On the fifth, she feels a slight disturbance in the Force, and breaks her now-usual patrol route, rushing to the child’s home.

  
  


They have the name of a surgeon for their chips, a meeting with the surgeon within their radius, and paid passage off-world. In a perfect universe, the family’s escape would go smoothly, with such preparations in place. Of course,  _ smooth  _ had always been outside the Force’s vocabulary, in Ahsoka’s experience.

“Hey!” A young voice and a surge of untempered rage projected through the Force, and Ahsoka sighs, deeply. “Keep moving! I'll handle this,” she tells Tenu, who nods, hurrying his three younglings away. Ahsoka turns to face the oncoming Inquisitor.

The girl-- because she is a girl, human and pale and barely Luke’s age, by the looks of it-- already has her double-bladed lightsaber ignited. She holds it low at her side, apparently relaxed, waiting for Ahsoka to make the first move.

Ahsoka unclips her own sabers from her belt, but doesn't ignite them yet. Darksiders tend to be impatient, she's found.

“Well?” she prompts, and sure enough, the Inquisitor scowls and rushes forward. Ahsoka ignites and raises her lightsabers in one motion, red meeting white in a shower of sparks as the girl reaches her.

“You'll regret getting in my way, Jedi,” the Inquisitor says, taking another swing.

“Not a Jedi,” Ahsoka corrects casually, blocking it. “But I've beaten Inquisitors before. You think you're better than them?”

The girl’s scowl turns into a vicious grin, a darkly determined glint in her eyes.

“I know I am,” she responds. She swings high, careful to keep the spinning of the blades guarding her front so Ahsoka has less opportunity to strike in the opening the girl’s wide movement would give her. Ahsoka tries anyway, swinging one blade up to deflect the high strike, the other down toward the Inquisitor’s legs, where it’s swiftly blocked. It goes this way for a little while, each of them blocking the other's attacks, never gaining ground-- but the Inquisitor is young, and patience has never been a virtue of the Dark Side. She starts to get bolder, making wider and wider strikes, looking for an opening that Ahsoka works not to give her. Ahsoka starts making faster attacks, pushing the girl back, forcing her to go on the defensive, also a common weak point of Darksiders.

  
  


When Leia has to jump back from one of the Jedi’s swings, unable to block it, she knows she’s out of her depth. She has little chance of winning this fight. She keeps fighting anyway. She gets more aggressive, trying to regain the upper hand, but the Jedi doesn’t relent, doesn’t falter. Leia grits her teeth, swings her sabers in a quick horizontal spin-- only to be blocked and pushed back. Already off-balance, Leia’s caught off guard by the Force push the Togruta sends her way. Her back slams into the hard clay wall of her prey’s now-empty house, and she slumps forward, pained and angry, saber hilt no longer lit but still closed firmly in her hands.

“Stay down, kid,” the Jedi says, sounding… tired. Something in the Force curls around Leia, telling her to listen, but she brushes it off and stands, breathing through the pain. The Jedi shifts from her casual stance to a defensive one, but Leia doesn't give her a chance to settle into it, attacking the moment she's back on her feet.

  
  


Ahsoka counters the Inquisitor's attack, swiping out with the lightsaber she isn't using to defend herself. She finally lands a hit, barely, the blade grazing the Inquisitor's side before the girl manages to leap away. The girl snarls, dropping one hand off her saber on instinct to press it to the burn in her side. Ahsoka uses the opportunity to press further forward, a string of swift attacks that push the Inquisitor back, and another Force shove that sends the girl flying backward. Her head hits a wall, and she falls to the ground in a heap.

Ahsoka hesitates, reaching out with the Force, and she’s glad when it becomes clear the girl isn’t dead, only stunned. The Inquisitor groans, moving sluggishly, barely conscious but trying to get up again.

Without a glance back, Ahsoka turns and runs.

  
  
  


Fourth Brother is standing by her side, when Leia wakes in the medbay of a Destroyer.

“You let the target escape,” the Mikkian says flatly, arms crossed across his chest, disapproving.

“They had help,” Leia replies, shifting, then sitting up, touching lightly at the bacta patch stuck on the back of her head. “A Jedi.”

Surprise flicks behind his eyes, then jealousy, annoyance--

“You need to get better at shielding,” Leia informs him, smirking, and the tendrils around his head flick in irritation. He reinforces his shields.

“You’re expected to report back soon,” he tells her. “I hope Lord Vader is feeling apologetic today.”

Leia knows that, regardless of the tone of mockery in Fourth Brother’s words, he’s being as sincere as either of them dare to get. They grew up together, trained together. They were among the first younglings raised in the Inquisitorius. Most of the others in their age group are dead now, only one other, low-ranking Sister remaining, so there’s… a sort of bond between them. A rapport, at the very least.

“I’ll be fine.” She rolls her eyes. She stands, clipping her lightsaber back onto her belt when Fourth Brother hands it to her, and leaves the medbay. She has a report to give, and her father expects punctuality.

 

🟂 🟂 🟂

 

When Luke is fifteen, he meets a few more Rebels; friends and allies of his mother, passing through on missions, or passing information through Luke to Padmé. Ben, and Ahsoka, sometimes, teach him how to use the Force; how to feel things out, how to levitate objects, how to shield his mind and emotions from others, how to meditate. Luke asks if he can learn how to use a lightsaber, and his mother interrupts Uncle Obi-Wan’s thoughtful  _ “maybe” _ with a stern  _ “not yet”. _

  
  
  


When Leia is fifteen, she hunts down a Jedi. Unarmed and resigned, the old woman isn’t any kind of challenge, isn’t any kind of impressive kill, but Leia is congratulated for it, nonetheless. The Grand Inquisitor dies not months later, leaving a power vacuum in the Inquisitorius that everyone is eager to fill. Leia’s father offers her the position, so she takes it.

She knows other Inquisitors see her as too young, too weak, too inexperienced to take the lead. But she finds herself fitting quite neatly into the position. Dissent in the ranks keeps her on her toes for a while, but no one dares act on their anger, not when they know Lord Vader personally decided she was best to fill the Grand Inquisitor’s shoes.

  
  


When Luke is sixteen, he helps Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen around the farm more than ever, because his mother is gone more than ever. Obi-Wan’s hair is starting to go grey, rather quickly, in wide, elegant streaks. Owen tells him he’s getting old, and Ben scoffs.

Aunt Ahsoka disappears, presumed dead. Padmé doesn’t come home to break the news-- she can’t, too much is happening, the Empire is too determined in their efforts to force the Rebellion down. Luke isn’t even supposed to hear it, he’s meant to be helping Aunt Beru clean while his mother talks to Ben, but he hears anyway,  _ “Ahsoka is gone,”  _ his mother’s voice tight and wavering, her meaning clear. Luke leans heavily against the wall, careful to keep his mental shields in place so Obi-Wan won’t hear his racing thoughts, or sense the sharp pang of loss Luke feels.

He listens to the report his mom gives, all that she was told about what happened.

“It wasn’t strictly a Rebel mission,” Padmé says, voice crackly through the communicator. “More of a Jedi one. Apparently… Vader was there.”

Obi-Wan doesn’t so much gasp as sigh in reverse, drawing in a controlled breath before replying. Luke can feel only a little of what Ben is feeling, but that little is enough. Pain,  _ anguish,  _ and a deep, resigned sorrow beneath that.

“I assume he…” Ben trails off.

“Ahsoka fought him to allow the others to escape,” Padmé confirms.

Luke feels sudden, harsh anger at Darth Vader, the man he's never met, the man who's taken his father and now his aunt from him. In the next room, all goes still, then Ben emerges, sees Luke against the wall. As Luke's anger fades to pain and he begins to cry, Obi-Wan-- slowly, hesitantly, as if he isn't totally sure how-- pulls him into a comforting hug.

  
  
  


When Leia is sixteen, they lose three Inquisitors in one day, to Jedi on Malachor. The ranks are getting annoyingly thin. The next time she sees her father, his mask is perfectly shiny, brand new, and there's an uneasy kind of rage in his presence that Leia's never sensed in him before.

“What happened?” she asks, expecting him not to answer.

“An old friend,” he says, bitterness dripping off every word. And that’s the end of that.

  
  
  


When Luke is seventeen, Uncle Obi-Wan leaves. This isn’t odd in itself; he has his own home, after all, and he and Uncle Owen do tend to get on each others’ nerves if Ben sticks around too long at a time. What is odd is the distracted, far-off look in Ben’s eyes, the solemn way he tells Luke to be careful and stay close to home, before he goes. Luke agrees, and Obi-Wan nods, once, before riding off into the desert.

He doesn’t come back for nearly a week.

Luke gets word from his mother not too long after that, encrypted six times over to avoid the communication being detected or traced.

_ Base compromised. Moving on and laying low. _

_ I love you. _

She doesn’t say where she’s going.

  
  
  


When Leia is seventeen, she, Fourth Brother, and Twelfth Sister are assigned by Vader to return to Inquisitorius Headquarters, to oversee training. They find fewer and fewer Force-sensitive younglings and Imperial cadets every year, and as more and more prove inadequate or uncooperative, the ranks thin even further. Currently, there are only four trainees at Headquarters. Two humans, a Twi’lek, and a Mirialan, all between the ages of nine and fourteen. She and Fourth Brother put them up on a platform over a two-story drop, and pit them all against each other, watching eight red saber blades clash, again and again.

“Makes me think of our training,” Fourth Brother comments, watching the Mirialan come inches from being pushed off the platform. “Focus more on offense. Defensive fighting may keep you alive, but it won’t help you  _ win _ ,” Fourth Brother calls, and the kid spares him half a glance before throwing themself back into the fight.

“Keep your concentration balanced,” Leia tells all four trainees. “Don’t become so focused on one target that you fail to notice the second one sneaking up behind.”

Fourth Brother takes his cue to jump down onto the platform, igniting his blades mid-air, swinging forward and down in a smooth diagonal arc, and nearly cutting the Twi’lek into uneven halves. The kid moves just in time.

“Work together,” Fourth Brother instructs. “Some missions require us to work in pairs or teams; always be prepared to fight  _ alongside  _ your Brothers and Sisters, not only in competition against them.”

The younglings quickly team up, surrounding him, but they’re young and inexperienced, still, and the space he takes up on the platform is enough that they’re all pushed closer to the edges. Leia watches the younger of the two humans go over first, using the Force to cushion her fall somewhat, but still ending up winded and off her feet. The Twi’lek is next, sticking the landing. And then it’s only the older human and the Mirialan, circling Fourth Brother, attacking from different angles. Trying to keep him off-balance.

Leia watches from above as the Mirialan launches a quick series of attacks, form sloppy, but good enough to keep most of Fourth Brother’s focus. The human uses the distraction to go for a downward strike that catches the tips of a few of Fourth Brother’s head-tendrils before he can dodge completely.

Fourth Brother curses, whirls on the human, sweeping a leg under the kid’s feet to knock him down before moving in for the kill. The kid hurries to get out of the way… and rolls right off the platform. He rolls into the landing and ends up back on his feet, uninjured. The Mirialan is still holding out, but Fourth Brother makes short work of forcing the kid back, until their foot falls on empty air and they’re down.

“Get yourselves cleaned up, then report to Twelfth Sister for your next lesson,” Leia dismisses the trainees. Once they’re gone, she leaps down onto the training platform, kicking her toe at the tips of Fourth Brother’s tendrils that are still squirming uselessly around underfoot. “What was that about being reminded of our training?”

“You’re hilarious,” Fourth Brother deadpans, apparently unbothered, but a few of his tendrils, shorter than the rest for seven years now, flick irritably. Leia smirks.

“You’ll get me back someday,” she assures him, patting his shoulder condescendingly.

“Someday,” he ehoes. He looks at the wriggling tips of his more recently injured tendrils, and makes a face of disgust before stepping on one, grinding it under his heel.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grandmother Force stages an intervention.  
> Or: I need the twins to know each other for ANH to play out the way I want it to, hence...this.

When Luke is eighteen, he finally convinces Obi-Wan to teach him how to use a lightsaber. There’s a lot more to it than Luke anticipated, different forms, stances, movements. Luke dutifully practices everything Ben teaches him; it’s more exciting than his normal chores, at least.

He doesn’t hear from his mom often, but she sends word every now and again, letting them know she’s still safe.

  
  


When Leia is eighteen, she ends up back on Tatooine, tracking rumors of a Force-user traveling through the Outer Rim. Normally, a bounty hunter with a lightsaber wouldn’t be cause enough to send an Inquisitor out, as sabers could easily be scavenged or stolen, but witnesses swore up and down the hunter also threw a man into a wall “with her mind”, so here Leia is, chasing down gossip.

She doesn’t find her bounty hunter. She  _ does  _ find something interesting, though, the same whispers and subtle threads she remembers feeling the first time she was on this forsaken rock, stronger and brighter now than before. It’s less like she’s feeling any specific presence in the Force, and more like the Force is telling her there’s something there, trying to lead her somewhere without telling her what’s at the end of the path. It’s not the Dark side, but it doesn’t feel particularly Light either, and that alone is enough to pique Leia’s curiosity.

She resigns herself to having to explain why she went off-mission to her father, and she follows the Force’s path, taking her speeder further into the desert.

  
  


Luke is halfway back from a run at Beggar’s Canyon with his friends, when he feels it. Not the approaching sandstorm, he’s been sensing that for half the day, but the way the Force is centering in on something out in the desert, trying to draw him further away from home. He hesitates, but the storm feels a long way off, yet, and Luke’s curiosity manages to get the better of him.

  
  


She finds a house, a moisture farm, abandoned or ravaged, she doesn’t know. It’s long empty, in any case, sand coating every surface, a few belongings here and there but nothing to indicate what sort of people lived here. And certainly nothing to indicate why the Force would bring her all the way out here.

  
  


It leads him to a familiar old farm, abandoned nearly as long as Luke’s been alive, rumored to be haunted. He and Biggs had snuck out here once, as kids, but hadn’t found anything that interested them. Luke lands his skyhopper, grabs the small pack he’s taken to carrying his father’s lightsaber in, and hops out, curious when he sees a speeder bike sitting outside. It looks like a recent model, and a recent arrival to Tatooine, the layer of sand covering it still thin and new.

  
  


The whine of an engine alerts Leia to another presence on the empty homestead, and she peers out to see a skyhopper landing close to the house. A figure dressed in the loose, light clothes of a desert worker climbs out of it, hiking a satchel onto their back. They step up to examine her jumpspeeder, running a hand over part of it, dislodging a thin layer of sand. Leia watches them look up toward the house. She ducks away from the open window she’s been spying through, and as she hears and senses the newcomer walking closer to the farmhouse, she realizes she’s only got a few options. Pulling her saber from her belt, she holds it behind her back and heads to the door.

  
  


The wind is picking up quicker than Luke anticipated, sand blowing in waves and already hitting as high as his knees as he approaches the house. He knocks on the door.

“Hello?” he calls, but there’s no reply from inside. The wind is getting more intense, and-- Luke runs around the side of the house to look-- the storm is visible on the horizon, getting bigger by the second and blowing in from roughly the direction of home. He won’t be able to make it back before it reaches him, and he won’t be able to fly in it. Luke curses softly. “Hey, can I come in? There’s nothing else around, and I don’t wanna be caught in the storm.”

After a moment, the door opens a few inches, revealing a girl no older than he is. She’s not really dressed like she expected to find herself out in the desert, her clothes too tight, too dark-colored, not light enough material. She looks out at him with obvious suspicion.

“Who are you?” she asks.

“Luke,” he says. “Luke Skywalker.”

Her expression does a funny thing, shifting through emotions faster than Luke can place them, but she doesn’t comment on his name, and after giving him an appraising look up and down, she opens the door to let him in.

  
  


“What’s your name?” Skywalker asks as he hurries to shut the door behind himself, then quickly goes around the small house, shuttering all the windows. He’s obviously much too young to be the Jedi who killed her mother, but the Force must have led her to him for a reason, Leia thinks. A son, maybe?

“That’s none of your business,” she replies. He doesn’t even really glance at her in his scramble to shut up the house, which gives Leia time to clip her lightsaber back onto her belt.

“I guess not,” he replies amicably. “These shutters look like they’ll still hold, but we should stay away from the windows, just in case.”

“Scared of a little sand?” Leia asks.

“You’re new to Tatooine, huh?” he shoots back, already closing up the next window. “Bad enough storm can strip your flesh from your bones faster than a pack of womp rats.”

When Leia doesn’t answer immediately, surprised and mildly impressed by the raw power he’s describing, Skywalker finally turns, whatever he was about to say quickly lost under a half-strangled sound. “You’re Imperial,” he says, clearly blurting the first words in his head. Leia follows his gaze to the white insignia printed on each shoulder of her uniform.

“And you’re not too bright,” she replies. Skywalker looks offended, but says nothing. He gives her a wary once-over before going back to making sure all the shutters are sealed.

  
  


Luke doesn’t know what to think. The girl has to be some kind of officer; she’s clearly not a stormtrooper. But why would an Imperial officer be on Tatooine, out in the desert all alone? And why would the Force bring him here? His mind is racing as he finishes closing up the old house. It’s too far above ground, and it’s got  _ way  _ too many windows, Luke thinks. No wonder no one’s lived in it for ages. The storm hits not long after he’s done, the familiar roar quickly surrounding them. The Imp looks disturbed, walking closer to one of the windows than Luke thinks is smart.

“It sounds like an animal,” she notes, listening uneasily to the wind outside. Slowly, like she isn’t thinking about it, her hand goes to a strange circular contraption hanging off her belt.

“My family usually tells stories to drown it out,” Luke tells her. He isn’t sure why. He feels a connection with her that doesn’t make any sense.

  
  


“Absolutely not. I vote we say nothing, ignore each other, and when the storm’s over we can go our separate ways,” Leia says, sitting down at the house’s kitchen table.

Skywalker shrugs, settling cross-legged on the floor, back against the wall with his pack on the ground next to him.

They sit in silence. Leia gets bored after an hour, and starts pacing. Skywalker is sitting stone-still with his eyes closed, and she starts to wonder if he's fallen asleep like that. When Leia moves for the door, though, he opens his eyes.

“Only thing out there is sand,” he points out. “We’re not going anywhere.” Leia scowls, but he’s right and she knows it.

“How old are you?” she asks, boredom overriding her original decision not to make conversation. She still has yet to determine if he’s related to Anakin Skywalker, after all.

“Eighteen, almost nineteen,” he says. “Born in the first week of the Empire. You?”

“The same,” says Leia.

“Same week?” Skywalker asks, surprised, and Leia nods. “Huh. What's your name?”

“...First Sister,” Leia responds this time.

“Interesting name,” he says, giving her a strange look. She reaches out with the Force, trying to determine what he's feeling, and she gets… appraisal. Like he's sizing her up, adjusting his estimations of her.

“I earned it,” Leia explains. It's way too easy to talk to this guy. “It's a rank and a name.”

“...Do you have a name of your own?” he asks, and now he seems  _ sad _ , sympathetic. Leia glares at him.

“Yes. Save your pity for someone who needs it.”

“I'm not--” he sighs. “If you don't wanna tell me your name, I get it.”

So she doesn't. They lapse back into quiet. After another hour or so Skywalker sighs again, opening his eyes and slumping out of perfect posture into a deep slouch.

“I can't wait to get home,” he says.

“And where would that be?” Leia asks, flat. Bored, still.

“My aunt and uncle are moisture farmers,” he says, which is about what she expected. “We’re out in the middle of nowhere, not much better than this. What about you?”

“Me?”

“Yeah,” Skywalker says, “where do you live?”

“Wherever I'm sent.”

“Do you get to visit your family?” he asks, curious.

“I don’t… yeah, sometimes,” Leia admits. She doesn’t know why she’s still answering his questions. Something about him makes her feel oddly at ease. Probably just the knowledge that she can kill him before the storm ends, if she needs to. Yeah. That's got to be it.

  
  


_ First Sister _ is a strangely fitting title for the Imperial, Luke thinks.  _ Ikkelta,  _ Elder Sister, is one name of the dragon who roams the desert skies, whose roars can be heard in the wind of sandstorms. Coincidence it may be, but if anyone he’s ever met could be described as  _ dragon-like,  _ it would be the person sitting in front of him. She has power and fire in her, under her skin, obvious even without the Force to help him see it.

“Skywalker,” she says eventually, not addressing him so much as rolling the name around in her mouth, feeling the edges of it. “Do you know an Anakin Skywalker, by any chance?”

The near-silent whispers of warning in the Force are enough to put Luke on edge.

“He was my father,” he answers anyway.

“‘Was’?” First Sister asks.

“He was killed before I was born,” Luke explains.

  
  


Leia feels vindictively glad, but also somewhat disappointed, to hear that her mother’s murderer is already dead. Her father had never commented on the Jedi more than to tell her his name, now she wonders if Vader had been the one to kill him. If he had already gotten revenge, and simply never told her. But why wouldn't he tell her?

“Was your father a Jedi?” she asks, just to be certain, just to be sure, and the wariness in Skywalker's eyes is replaced, briefly, by honest fear, which is more than answer enough. If she can't get revenge on Anakin Skywalker himself, then… well. His son will have to do.

Leia stands, stretching her arms above her head, and she sees the boy inching his hand toward the bag at his side. If he's got a blaster in there, Leia thinks, this might be faster than she'd like. She grabs her lightsaber and ignites both blades in a fluid motion, as Skywalker pulls from the satchel-- not a blaster, but a saber of his own. Leia grins.

  
  


As First Sister leaps across the room toward him, Luke scrambles out of the way, igniting his father's lightsaber. He hurries to his feet, barely blocking an attack from First Sister's blade. Blades. Her saber is double-sided, spinning, red as Tatooine's third moon. She's relentless, and clearly much more practiced than Luke, and he's slowly forced back, back, until he stumbles over the step up that disconnects the kitchen from the rest of the house. He ends up flat on his back in the doorway, nowhere to go, lightsaber knocked out of his hand and rolling to a stop halfway across the room. 

  
  


He puts up a decent fight, but it's not enough to save him. He falls, effectively cornered in the kitchen doorway. His saber goes rolling. Leia moves forward quickly, putting out one blade of her own weapon, so as to swing the other down in a clean curve toward Skywalker’s throat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Credit to Fialleril for the worldbuilding re: Ikkelta/The Mighty One/Elder Sister/Leia, the great Krayt dragon, and our Leia being named after her.


	4. Chapter 4

She has her lightsaber at his neck, barely a finger’s width away from the skin. The blade is sizzling, starting to burn him superficially the longer she holds it there, but she… can’t kill him. She  _ can’t _ . The Force is  _ screaming _ in her ears, Light and Dark indistinguishable in the clamor. Leia wants to strike down this would-be-Jedi, but she’s completely frozen, taken off guard by the Force so strongly denying her.

Skywalker is barely breathing, eyes wide as he stares up at her, and after a tense, silent moment, he summons his lightsaber back to his hand. In one fluid movement he ignites it, swings it in a tight motion to shove her blade away from himself.

Despite herself, as he pushes to his feet, pushes her back, all Leia feels is  _ relief _ that they're on even ground again.

  
  


Luke doesn't know what made First Sister hesitate, but he uses the chance to get back on his feet. In her distraction, he manages to push her back a little, but he knows he won't be able to keep it up. He's trying to think of what he can do when one of the nearest window shutters slams open, sand blowing in at high speeds. First Sister and Luke both curse in surprise. She backs up, and he takes the opening to run, out of the kitchen, away from both her and the now open window. When she follows, she's rubbing sand off her face, trying to avoid getting any in her eyes, lightsaber held at her side.

Luke, across the main room, gives it barely a moment of thought before shutting off his own blade, and First Sister looks up at the sound, watching warily as he clips the saber to his belt.

“I don't think the Force wants us to fight,” he says earnestly.

“Why  _ else _ would it lead me here?” First Sister asks, angry, circling slowly around the room toward him.

“I don't know, but it led me here too,” Luke pauses, remembering Ben and Ahsoka’s stories of the Clone Wars, of the Jedi-- and of their enemies. “Are you… are you a Sith?”

  
  


“I'm an Inquisitor,” Leia corrects. At Skywalker's blank look she rolls her eyes and explains, “we hunt down Jedi.”

“Oh,” he seems uncomfortable with this knowledge. “So you were here looking for my father?”

“...No,” Leia admits. It’s still too easy to talk to this boy. “I'm on Tatooine for someone else. When I heard your name, I just thought… I could get revenge.”

Skywalker looks puzzled.

“Revenge for what?” he asks.

“Anakin Skywalker killed my mother,” Leia says. “She died right after I was born.”

  
  


Luke is taken aback by the accusation, but he doesn’t know whether he can dispute it. He doesn’t know much about his father’s last days, the memories too painful for Ben; Luke’s never wanted to pester him about it.

“Who was she?” he asks instead, backing up a step as First Sister stalks ever closer.

  
  


“She was a senator, and a queen. I remember her, just a little, impressions mostly. But she was kind, and beautiful.” Leia spins her saber lazily as she moves in, but still, Skywalker doesn’t reach for his saber again, just backs up another step, out of reach of her blades. “Her name was Padmé Amidala, and your father killed her.”

  
  


“What?” Luke asks, completely confused. “That’s impossible.”

“Why?” First Sister demands. “Because a Jedi wouldn’t kill an innocent?”

“No, because she isn’t  _ dead _ ,” Luke says.

  
  


“...What?” Leia asks, sensing the earnesty in Skywalker’s claim.

“Just, let me… I can show you,” he says, with the eagerness of a youngling about to show off a new trick they’ve learned. He steps forward, glancing between her face and her still-ignited lightsaber, and against her better judgement, she lets him. He grabs her hand, and she bares her teeth, about to wrench away from him, but all he does is completely drop his shields, pushing images at her through the Force. Memories, warmth and comfort and love Leia has never experienced. A woman, kind and sad and beautiful, just as Leia's own faint memory paints her. Leia sees her through Luke's eyes, telling him stories, bringing home ingredients to make pastries from Naboo, talking to Rebels or runaway slaves in the quiet midnight desert, pointing them toward shelter and safety.

“Padmé Amidala is  _ my mother _ ,” Luke says. “And she’s alive.”

“That doesn’t make  _ sense _ ,” Leia protests, pulling her hand away from his grasp, but the truth of it is staring her in the face. “I don’t… why would he  _ lie _ ?”

  
  


Luke doesn’t know who ‘he’ is, so he can only shrug in response. First Sister puts her lightsaber away, finally, her expression becoming one of intense thought, her forehead wrinkling in a familiar way, and  _ oh _ . Luke’s mind is racing, but, the pieces are coming together, now. He looks closely at the girl in front of him; her dark hair and eyes, the shape of her nose. First Sister. Elder Sister,  _ Ikkelta _ , the Mighty One.  _ Leia _ .

  
  


“ _ Leia _ !” Luke yells. Leia startles, both at the sudden volume, and the sound of the name she hadn't told him.

“How did you--”

“You're my age, I can't believe I didn't-- you're my twin sister!  _ You're  _ Leia,” Luke is essentially vibrating in place, and he reaches for her hands again, both this time, but doesn’t seem bothered when Leia scowls and pulls away. “You're Leia!  _ You aren't dead!  _ Mom will be so happy--”

“I’ve never told anyone that name,” Leia says, and Luke’s energy goes down a little, more under control, softer.

“It’s the name Mom gave you,” he says.  _ Mom _ . Padmé Amidala. Padmé the Rebel, according to Luke’s memories. Father has some explaining to do, Leia thinks. But wait… her  _ father… _

  
  


“We can’t be twins,” Leia says.  _ Leia,  _ his sister, his twin,  _ alive  _ and  _ here  _ and Luke is so happy he could sing.

“What?” he asks, her words catching up to him. “What do you mean we  _ can’t _ ? We are!”

“No.” She shakes her head. “Because if we’re twins, then my father lied to me.”

“If we’re twins, he might not be your father at all,” Luke blurts automatically, and Leia glares at him. “What?”

“Maybe  _ your  _ family’s the liars,” she shoots back. Luke opens his mouth to protest, but… he feels a hint of doubt. Maybe she’s right. Would his family lie? He can’t fathom why they’d have reason to.

“What’s your father like?” he finds himself asking, a sidestep change of subject.

  
  


Leia thinks a moment on what to say. What to tell… her twin. Her brother. Maybe. It would certainly explain their quick connection, though it would raise a number of questions. She feels off-balance, unsure about…  _ anything _ . How many lies has she been told?

“He taught me, sometimes,” she answers finally. “Helped train me to be an Inquisitor. He’s strong in the Force, ruthless. But he… cares, about me. He’s not a bad father.”

“He’s an-- an Inquisitor, like you?” Luke asks.

  
  


Leia opens her mouth to correct him, but, then hesitates. As off-guard as she is, she still recognizes the importance of keeping her father’s identity secret. Inquisitors aren’t allowed to have family. She just nods, and if Luke catches the lie, he doesn’t say so.

“Why… why would he only steal you?” he asks instead.

“What do you mean  _ steal  _ me?” Leia demands.

“Mom thinks you died as a baby!” Luke defends. “He must have stolen you, but why?”

“I’m his  _ daughter _ ,” Leia emphasizes.

“That’s my point! That would make me his son, so why wouldn’t he take me too?”

That’s… an interesting point. The two of them, thoughtful, fall into silence.

  
  


_ Silence _ . The sound of the storm has faded, and they hadn’t even noticed it go. Leia realizes this about the same moment Luke does, and she gives him a pained, almost apologetic glance before heading for the door.

“Wait!” Luke hurries after her. “Don’t you want to figure this out?”

“I don’t think we’re going to,” Leia replies, not looking back. “Not without asking someone.”

“You should talk to Mom,” Luke says, just hoping to get his sister to stay.

  
  


“No,” Leia says solemnly. She whirls on Luke, jabbing a finger at the middle of his chest. “Don’t say anything. Don’t tell her you met me.”

“ _ What _ ?”

“Promise,” Leia orders. “I won’t tell Father, and you won’t tell P-- Mom.” She stumbles over the word.

Luke looks hurt, conflicted.

“Why?” he asks.

“Because in case you’ve forgotten,” Leia gestures to the Imperial insignia on her shoulders, “we’re on opposite sides, Luke! No one can know we know each other.”

“You can’t just  _ leave _ ,” Luke protests, as Leia turns away from him and gets on her jumpspeeder, shaking loose some of the sand that now coats it after the storm. He puts his hands on the front of the bike, standing firmly in the way of her departure. Leia glares at him, and he stares back, expression determined.

‘ _ You’re very annoying,’  _ she thinks.

“Hey!” Luke protests.

And then they both freeze, as they process what just happened. What they just did.

‘ _ Can you hear me?’  _ Luke asks, never opening his mouth. Slowly, Leia nods, and Luke grins, excited.

“We have a Force bond,” Leia realizes. Their connection makes more sense now, and this certainly adds to the credence of the  _ twin  _ idea, but… 

“This is perfect!” Luke says, which isn’t  _ quite  _ what Leia was about to say about it. ‘ _ Now we can communicate, but still in secret. Just like you wanted.’ _

_ ‘...I guess,’  _ Leia deadpans. Luke’s grin gentles into a kind smile, one Leia thinks he must have gotten from his-- their mother.

“Be safe, Leia,” he says aloud. It strikes her that no one’s ever said that to her before. Not in so many words. Fourth Brother and her father have come the closest, but even they dance around saying anything that would make it too obvious that they care.

“You too,” she finds herself replying. Luke steps back from the speeder bike.

She gives one last look over her shoulder, once she’s on her way, and sees her brother standing there, just where she left him.

  
  


Luke watches his sister (his  _ sister! _ ) shrink into the distance. Only once he can’t see her anymore does he go back to his skyhopper, dusting thick layers of sand off before opening it, and dusting thinner layers of sand  _ out  _ before climbing inside.

  
  
  


(Something in the Force settles, rippling out through the galaxy. Few feel it, and fewer still think anything of it. The Force is never static, after all, always in flux.

But in a swamp somewhere, an old Jedi Master feels the Force shift, just a little bit, back toward balance, and he smiles.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Credit (again) to Fialleril, for the worldbuilding re: Ikkelta/The Mighty One/Elder Sister/Leia, the great Krayt dragon, and our Leia being named after her.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The war begins in earnest.  
> (Or: we've reached the New Hope timeline.)

When Luke is nineteen, Biggs comes home from the Academy, comes to Tosche Station, only to tell Luke he’s defecting, joining the Alliance.

“The _Rebellion?_ ” Luke demands, excited, and Biggs quickly shushes him, worried someone inside the station will hear. “I’m quiet, I’m quiet, listen to how quiet I am, you can barely hear me,” Luke whispers, and Biggs fights a smile.

“My friend has a friend on Bestine who might help us make contact,” he continues.

“You’re crazy,” Luke replies. “You’ll be wandering around forever trying to find them.”

“I know it’s a long shot.” Biggs shrugs, “but if I can’t find them, I’ll do what I can on my own!”

He goes on, asking if Luke’s going to the Academy next season, and Luke shakes his head, making up excuses, unsure whether to tell Biggs anything about his own connection to the Rebels. It’s not like he has any current contacts, codes, any way of helping Biggs out, so it doesn’t matter anyway.

Then Biggs says he’s leaving _tomorrow_.

“Guess I won’t see you, then,” Luke says, disappointed.

“Maybe someday,” Biggs replies. “I’ll keep a lookout.”

“Yeah,” Luke says. And then he makes up his mind, and adds, “if you see my mom out there, tell her to let me come fight, will ya?”

Biggs hesitates, clearly a little startled.

“ _Paila_?” he asks, laughing incredulously, and Luke grins.

“Take care of yourself, Biggs,” he says, offering a hand. “You’ll always be the best friend I ever had.”

Biggs grabs his arm in a firm handshake, still laughing a little at first, but quickly growing more serious, giving Luke a smile that’s almost _sad_.

“So long, Luke.”

  


When Leia is nineteen, there are only the smallest handful of Inquisitors left, and nothing for them to do but chase gossip and shadows. She and Fourth Brother, stuck at headquarters more often than not, mostly keep busy by sparring.

Leia has also entertained herself, the past year, by speaking with Luke, when she can get away with it. Opening her mind to their bond opens the bond to potential detection, so she’s careful-- keeps her shields up unless she’s somewhere on assignment alone, far from the Imperial Center and far from her father. (She still hasn’t asked her father if he’d lied to her. She doesn’t know how, doesn’t think she could confront him without the anger in her bubbling up.)

  


Luke looks forward to the times when he can slip away into the desert and talk to Leia. He can’t risk connecting to their bond around Obi-Wan, less because he doesn’t want Ben to find out, and more because if Ben finds out, it won’t be a secret from Mom anymore, and then Leia might not keep speaking to him at all. They hardly ever get to talk as it is, he doesn’t want to break the first-- and thus far, only-- promise he’s ever made her.

  


( _“Commander, tear this ship apart until you’ve found those plans.”_ )

 

( _“Inform Lord Vader we have a prisoner.”_ )

 

(“ _That’s funny. The damage doesn’t look as bad from out here.”_ )

 

 _“Help us, Obi-Wan, you’re our only hope,”_ the man in the hologram speaks in a tone that might be called pleading, if it wasn’t so calm and dignified. Luke freezes, hands dropping from the R2 unit. The hologram plays on a loop, clearly incomplete, and clearly important.

Obi-Wan isn’t here; he’s back out in the desert, staying at his own home for awhile, after getting into another argument with Uncle Owen. But there’s not enough daylight left to go out there now. As much as Luke hates to delay, he knows the droid’s message will have to wait until morning.

 

( _“I have placed information vital to the survival of the Rebellion into Artoo’s memory systems. My wife will know how to retrieve it. You must see the droid safely delivered to her on Alderaan.”_ )

 

( _“Alderaan? Uncle Obi-Wan, I’m not going to Alderaan. I’ve gotta get home, it’s late. We can contact Mom to help you.”_ )

 

( _“We will then crush the Rebellion with one swift stroke.”_ )

 

( _“If they traced the robots here, they may have learned who they sold them to, and that would lead them back... home.”)_

 

Leia’s in the middle of a spar with Fourth Brother when she feels it: fear, so sharp she falters, her strike going wide. It’s quickly followed up by pain, anguish, _anger,_ Luke’s emotions reaching her across the galaxy but she’s _never_ felt these things from him. Luke is everything Leia knows as _Light_ , he’s happy and hopeful and resolute. She blocks a blow from Fourth Brother, reaches back along the connection, feels Luke latch onto her presence with such ferocity that she gets imprints of sensation, new memory. Smoke against a blue sky. Wind blowing sand against skin. The smell of flesh burning.

 _They’re gone,_ he thinks at her, across their bond, and there’s a thread of accusation in the words, an association there that he can’t help but make, Leia realizes, as the obvious truth hits her: the Empire did this.

“Distraction will kill you,” Fourth Brother’s voice brings Leia back to herself just in time to avoid his saber again.

 _I’m sorry,_ she sends to Luke, with all the sincerity she can, because it’s all there is to say.

She shuts the connection off firmly.

 

( _“...I want to come with you to Alderaan.”_ )

 

( _“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.”_ )

 

( _“Chewie here tells me you’re looking for passage to the Alderaan system.”_ )

 

( _“I think it is time we demonstrated the full power of this station.”_ )

 

( _“Chewie! Get us out of here!”_ )

 

( _“Senator Organa, before your execution, I would like you to be my guest at a ceremony that will make this battle station operational.”_ )

 

Luke and Obi-Wan both feel it, the disturbance, the pain and terror _,_ so suddenly silenced, in such magnitude that it makes Luke nauseous, wondering what might have caused it. Obi-Wan looks pale, a deep frown settling on his face.

 

Leia and Fourth Brother both feel it, the disturbance, the pain and terror, so suddenly silenced, in such magnitude that it makes Leia lightheaded, the harsh tilt the Force takes toward Darkness.

“It’s finished,” Fourth Brother says, and neither of them have heard of the weapon in more than passing rumors, but they’ve heard enough to put the dots together. Somewhere, out in the galaxy, a planet may just be _gone_. Despite herself, the thought is enough to make Leia feel sick.

 

( _“Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.”_ )

 

( _“Looks like we’re coming up on Alderaan.”_ )

 

( _“That’s no moon.”_ )

 

( _“They must be trying to return the stolen plans to the Senator.”_ )

 

( _“The Force will be with you, always.”_ )

 

( _“I can’t see a thing in this helmet.”_ )

 

( _“Had a slight weapons malfunction, but, uh, everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine-- we're all fine here now. Thank you. ...How are you?”_ )

 

( _“I’m Luke Skywalker, I’m here to rescue you!”_ )

 

( _“Obi-Wan is here.”_ )

 

( _“Shut down all the garbage mashers on the detention level!”_ )

 

( _“I’ve been waiting for you, Obi-Wan.”_ )

 

They get away, barely. Luke, Ben, Han, Chewie, R2, 3PO, and Bail Organa, the haphazardly-rescued viceroy, who, now that the adrenaline of their escape has worn off, just seems deeply tired. Luke can understand that; he’s only lost his aunt and uncle, not his whole planet, and yet the same heaviness of grief settles over both of them, without distinction or contest. Obi-Wan is injured, badly, after his fight with Vader-- the plan is to get him into a bacta tank as soon as they get where they’re going. Luke carefully doesn’t think about what may happen, if they aren’t fast enough.

 

They get away, barely. Leia, Fourth Brother, and a young Zygerrian trainee without a rank, the only other they’d been able to find alive on the way out. The attack came without warning, stormtroopers pouring into Headquarters in unmatchable numbers (and the Force ripples in echo of screams past, other soldiers and other betrayals and another dead order on Coruscant, all by the Empire’s hand, by the Emperor’s hand).

The message was loud and clear: _the Emperor has no use for you anymore._ Not now that his weapon is complete, not now that the Jedi are all, supposedly, dead, not now that the Inquisitorius provides more threat than benefit. Leia knows they need to get off the planet if they want to survive.

She thinks, briefly, of her father, of whether he’d known about this, but she shakes the thought away quickly.

She doesn’t want to know.

 

( _“We’re approaching the planet Yavin.”_ )

 

His mother is there, at the base, with other Rebel leaders, and she freezes in momentary shock when she sees Luke, but then she rushes forward, wraps him in a close hug.

“Lukka,” she greets, and he can’t break down, he can’t cry now, not with so much still going on, but he hugs his mom for as long as he can before stepping back.

When he does move back, look around again, he sees Bail embracing a woman, her long hair loose down her back, and a faint orange glow visible at her neckline.

“I shouldn’t have left,” the woman says, quiet, broken.

“If you hadn’t, I’d have lost you too,” Bail says emphatically. Another Alderaanian, then, Luke thinks; Bail’s wife, Queen Breha, maybe. Luke looks away, back toward his mother and the others, to let the couple have a moment.

 

( _“A precise hit will start a chain reaction which should destroy the entire station.”_ )

 

( _“This will be a day long remembered. It will soon see the end of the rebellion._ ”)

 

( _“Red Five, standing by.”_ )

 

( _“We’ll have to destroy them ship to ship.”_ )

 

( _“It’ll be just like Beggar’s Canyon, back home.”_ )

 

( _“Great shot, kid!”_ )

 

( _“I knew you’d come back!”_ )

 

They have to leave Yavin quickly, they all know. The Empire won’t let a blow like this go unpunished. But there’s time enough, even in the scramble, for celebration. And for mourning.

Luke thinks of Beru, Owen, Biggs. He thinks of the other pilots who died up there, people with names he never learned. He thinks of Alderaan, reduced to little more than a meteor shower, out in the dark.

He tries to reach Leia, through their bond, but she’s still shutting him out.

 

Leia puts her shields up, shutting herself off from the Force completely, in an effort to stay hidden. Fourth Brother and the youngling do the same.

They’ve hopped a freighter headed all the way to the Outer Rim, some backwater planet Leia’s never heard of that’s sure to have barely any Imperial presence. Well, _hopped_ is a gentle word. More like they’d used a combination of threats and mind-tricks to intimidate the captain into giving them a ride, and now they’re in hyperspace glaring at anyone who gets too close or starts whispering too much.

“We’ll have to ditch these clothes, and maybe our lightsabers,” Leia says quietly, as much as she dislikes the idea.

“We need names to go by, too,” Fourth Brother adds. “We can’t stand out.”

“Cowards,” the youngling hisses, meeting their glares defiantly when they turn to her.

“The Empire’s betrayed us,” Leia replies, voice still low. “So for now, we survive. We hide.”

The kid looks as if she’s about to protest, so Leia puts a hand on her shoulder, a comfort and a warning in equal measure. “And _then_ , when it’s time, we go _back_.”

There’s a promise of violence, revenge, retribution, in her tone, and the youngling seems satisfied by that, content in the fact that they aren’t just running away.

“We need names,” Fourth Brother repeats.

“Later,” Leia says. “Clothes and credits first.”

 

After leaving Yavin, they eventually decide to recenter their headquarters on Hoth. Despite being the exact opposite of a burning desert world, it reminds Luke of home in the strangest ways; the unlivable temperatures, the vast stretches of empty landscape, the wind and storms that demand a healthy respect.

He spends time with a recovering Obi-Wan. He spends time with his mother, with Han and Chewie, with Wedge, with Bail and Breha. He spends time getting to know people, getting to know the Rebellion he’s finally part of.

He keeps trying to reach Leia.

She only gives him silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! Thanks for sticking with this fic and sorry for the delay on this chapter. I haven't actually re-watched the OT in a while, so reading back up on the details and finding which quotes to use and/or change throughout here was a bit of a process. Not to mention my recent spiral into a couple of other fandoms that distracted me, lol. I'd like to say the next chapter will be more timely, but with my schedule right now, I don't wanna promise anything. Fingers crossed, though! :)

**Author's Note:**

> Ao3/Tumblr user fialleril gets full credit for every single headcanon related to Tatooine slave culture/language: the translation of Luke's name as Lukka Ekkreth, the saying dukkra ba dukkra, Beru being a surgeon for runaways, and the mention of the Tatooine stories Luke grows up hearing. I'll put any and all future references to fialleril's worldbuilding & hcs in chapter notes as the story updates, and y'all should read their fics if you haven't already, all their stuff is fantastic! :)


End file.
